You Belong
by ReginaRiverMayHill
Summary: It started when she was a child. Whispers in her ear after each hit. Hit after hit until she repeated it back. You belong to me. You belong to me. She hated belonging to anybody, but she had her whole life. Basically an angsty summary of Regina's life told with the symbolism of Regina belonging to people.


It started when she was a child.

Whispers in her ear after each hit. Hit after hit until she repeated it back.

_You belong to me. _

_You belong to me. _

Her mother needed that sense of control and she always got it.

Her father was submissive, never once speaking up, acting out.

She used to, in the early days. Saying she didn't belong to her, saying she was her own person. Trying to run from her mother.

But it never worked. She end up sprawled on her face, bruising forming where they wouldn't be visible to outsiders.

"_Oh Regina, you'll always belong to me. Isn't that right?"_

"_Yes Mother"_

"_Say it"_

"_I'll always belong to you, mother"_

Eventually she gave in.

Became like her father.

But that left her open for Leopold.

He whispered it to her in the close confines of their chambers.

When he put on her necklace he gave her for their anniversary. When he handed her her gloves. When she kissed him goodnight on his cheek when she excused herself early from dinner so she didn't have to sit through him and his daughter and so she'd be asleep when he came back, drunk or in low spirits.

_You belong to me. _

_You belong to me. _

But the she was tired of belonging to people.

Belonging to Leopold. Belonging to her mother as well.

But she couldn't get rid of one.

As soon as she got rid of her mother, Rumplestiltskin was there.

He never said anything, but it was in his eyes with every deal they made, every word he said, every giggle and finger against finger tap.

He knew she belonged to him, she depended on him to get what she wanted. To get what she wanted, to get what she needed she belonged to him.

And she hated it.

She hated belonging to anybody, but she had her whole life.

She was used to the words coming from him.

In his eyes, in his movements, in every deal.

_You belong to me. _

_You belong to me. _

And then she became the Evil Queen.

She was finally in control. She whispered it to them. When they were in her dungeon, as she searched for Snow White. To Graham as he did her bidding.

She wild and in control.

She was the top of the food chain.

She didn't belong to anyone.

It was the other way around.

_You belong to me. _

_You belong to me._

But yet she did belong to the darkness. Every night as she slept, it whispered in her ear.

She couldn't escape it, once you crossed the line there was no going back.

It always followed her.

In the tears she wept in her bed as she grieved the ones she lost and killed. In the stray thoughts that filled her sorrowed brain.

'_Maybe it wasn't Snow White's fault. It was mine'._

Because it would would seem her fate to lose everything.

To give in to the darkness.

To belong to someone.

_You belong to me. _

_You belong to me. _

With Henry it seemed neither was true. He didn't belong to her, she didn't belong to him.

It was a mutual thing but it lacked connection. She wanted him to belong to her, she had been in control just before the curse. He didn't.

And she lost him, and lost to the darkness again.

It continued its journey through her soul, ruining what was left.

Until there was just a strand of innocence left.

That strand never died, instead corrupting the ones around it as she grew as a person and fought through things untold.

It fought until there was enough for a second chance.

_I belong to you. _

_I belong to you. _

It never left her, sticking her mind like a stubborn ox, and eventually she accepted it.

That is what saved her when he came.

Because for once there was no dominance.

No submissance.

No wish for either.

There was only that strand of innocence, that kept growing.

And it opened her heart for love.

Finally she could realize there never should be any dominance or submissance. No wish for either.

It shouldn't be a dance inbetween or a long won battle between the two.

It should be a partnership.

Equal relations.

Regina and Robin.

_You belong with me. _

_You belong with me. _


End file.
